Dimensions:

Alternate Title(s):

Previous Attribution(s):

Unknown maker, perhaps by a pupil of Lysippos

Department:

Antiquities

Classification:

Sculpture

Object Type:

Male figure

Object Number:

77.AB.30

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A naked youth stands with his weight on his right leg, crowning himself with a wreath, probably olive. The olive wreath was the prize for a victor in the Olympic Games and identifies this youth as a victorious athlete. The eyes of the figure were originally inlaid with colored stone or glass paste and the nipples were inlaid with copper, creating naturalistic color contrasts.

Found in the sea in international waters, this statue is one of the few life-size Greek bronzes to have survived; as such, it provides much information on the technology of ancient bronze casting. The origin of the statue is unknown, but either Olympia or the youth's hometown is possible. Romans probably carried the statue off from its original location during the first century B.C. or A.D., when Roman collecting of Greek art was at its height. The Roman ship carrying it may have foundered, preserving the statue for centuries in the sea.

Lloyd, Michael, and Michael Desmond. European and American Paintings and Sculpture in the Australian National Gallery. Canberra: 1992. p. 15, ill.
in a discussion of objects offered the Gallery in 1973.

Stansbury-O'Donnell, Mark D. Looking at Greek Art (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp.13, 32,43,129,179,213, figs.9,15,20,48,66,82. pl. 9 mentioned in the title is of a gallery view and doesn't have an accession number attached.

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